By Briana Laird, OT Intern
There is an ongoing debate about engagement and whether it really is beneficial to the increase of visibility to the brand, as well as the importance of the role it plays in marketing.
So, to start us off, what even is engagement? For advertisers and marketing agencies, engagement has a variety of definitions and uses. Engagement is defined as a consumer interacting with a brand or an ad, and there are many ways to create engagement with your audience. It’s pinpointing key information that is relevant to the audience and figuring out a way to draw clients and customers in.
What many fail to realize is that advertising doesn’t just start and stop there. Engagement is the first step to creating a lasting relationship between the brand and the client. Today, we’re gonna talk about engagement and how you’ve got it all wrong.
Engagement and Your Audience
Engagement forms a connection between your business and your audience. When posting content, the short-term goal can be something as simple as a certain amount of likes, comments or shares. What you don’t want to do when engaging with your audience is say too much, or justify a business’s value then and there. It’s all about being concise, yet confident, allowing the customer to want to learn more.
You must be broad enough to grab the attention of your audience, keeping in mind that different people interpret things differently. You also want everyone to understand what your business stands for. You want your content to capture the audience’s attention and allow them to take the next step.
It’s also important to understand that engagement does not equal intention. It is not necessarily the initial action that counts, but knowing what leads to increased visibility and brand loyalty. Similar to the quote, “Good things come to those who wait,” engagement often works the same way.
Right Idea, Wrong Time
When it comes to engagement-focused content, you need to share relevant information with your audience at the right time. Shift around what’s being offered to make it fit their immediate needs. Revise your product, brand or services, and find the best fit for your audience.
Find out what time most of your audience is not only online, but willing to engage. For starters, there should be no overnight posting unless you’re promoting a 24-hour service, such as a 24 hour restaurant, or a cookie business designed specifically for late night, sweet treat snackers. It will take time and patience to find when your audience is most online.
At first, it will involve trial and error, but you should have a good idea of where to start. The best posting times are between 9 am – 3 pm, after the chaos we call mornings and before the dreaded yet rewarding drive home from work. However, this is not how it works for every business. Ir, for example, your brand promotes something relaxing, maybe the best time to post would be in the evenings to get that post-work crowd, serving the content to them when they want it the most. Take into account weekdays and weekends, and when your service is offered.
Here are some tips on what to do and what not to do in terms of engagement:
What to Do:
Build your brand’s loyalty and awareness.
The key word here is “build.” That initial engagement gets you one step one to building a trusting relationship with your client.
Enable personalized marketing.
Engagement doesn’t only work one way, of course. Your audience is learning about you and what your brand offers, but you are also learning about your audience. When you learn your audience, you can personalize your content in a targeted way.
Revise your brand’s content.
Nothing has to be set in stone. It’s okay to make adjustments here and there when it comes to revising your brand to make it unique and relatable for your audience.
Understand your intended audience.
Is it an older crowd? Teens? Families? Make an effort to come up with ideas that would be interesting to your audience.
Make sure you’re using relevant information.
Tell the truth when advertising your brand. Relevancy makes all the difference in building that trust with your clients. For more, see #1 in What Not to Do.
What Not to Do
Post irrelevant content.
This is not only a waste of both your and your audience’s time, but it creates a big divide between you and your customer. If they can’t trust what your engagement looks like on your media platforms, chances are, they won’t want to build a relationship or trust your brand.
Focus on one idea.
Everyone is different, and likes similar things for different reasons. It’s important to have a variety of content to draw in different people with different interests, broadening your engagement all together.
Post too much content or spammy content.
Too much content seems forced. For one, it’s annoying to see the same thing over and over again on your feed, leading to the reverse effects of losing followers who simply want to get away from the posts. No one wants to feel like they HAVE to buy or use your brand.
Avoid interacting with your audience.
Again, you are also learning your audience, so interacting with them will make all the difference in building your platform. Look for authentic opportunities to engage with your audience.
Forget to alter content depending on social media platforms.
Different media platforms have different audiences, so it’s important to make sure you take the time to pinpoint the key differences of each audience to be able to cater best to them.
One more time: engagement is NOT the end goal— it’s the first step of building relationships with your target audience. Engagement is the pathway to building two-way communication between the customer and the brand. When it comes to engagement, you want to create a sense of urgency or fear of missing out, or FOMO as some may call it.
Still don’t know where to start? We’re here to help! Contact us for help with all your advertising and marketing needs, to help you stay on target.
